In a bid to boast the popularity of skiing, The International Ski Federation (FIS) voted at its annual general council in Turkey, to bring events to city centres by holding sanctioned events starting next year.

The first such event will be held at the Munich Olympic Park on January 2nd, 2011 and will consist of a parallel event to feature the top 16 competitors. Athletes will earn FIS overall World Cup overall title points and top four thru the finish line will be given regular World Cup points.

Switzerland Tourism, Emmi UK limited and the resorts of Champery and Les Crosets, Switzerland are headed onto the slopes of Pontypool, South Wales this Saturday to watch some Welsh ski racing and to promote snowsports in Switzerland.

It’s going to one heck of a winter in Germany’s alpine ski region of Upper Bavaria.

In addition to being one of Europe’s up and coming ski destinations, Bavaria’s ski areas will host a plethora of major competitions this upcoming season, giving tourists many excuses to visit the historic region.

The 2011 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships will be held in Bavaria’s famous Garmisch-Partenkirchen ski area from February 7th till February 20th. Garmisch-Partenkirchen last hosted the World Championships in 1978. It also hosted the first Olympic alpine skiing competition at the 1936 Winter Olympics.

Garmish has invested heavily in preparing for the World Championships, including the creation of a second downhill slope to compliment the famous Kandahar downhill, and the addition of several new cable cars and chair lift.

According to the mayor of the town of Garmish, Thomas Schmid, the ski resort has invested about 60 million Euros ($80m) for the event, and another 42 million Euros ($57m) has been spent to speed up the train from Munich to Garmish for 2011. The train is well-known because skiers can take the train from Munich with their skis on, because it stops 200m from the bottom of the ski hill. The train ride takes about an hour and a half.